Messages - gz

The gun shop owner who sold him the Glock 9 mm, one of the guns used at Norris Hall, said Cho easily passed a background check last month before buying the weapon.

Cho Seung-Hui walked into a gun shop five weeks ago, paid the £285 bill by credit card and walked out with a Glock 19 handgun and a box of ammunition. The pistol was one of two guns found carrying Cho's fingerprints after he fatally shot 32 people and then himself at Virginia Tech University.

John Markell, owner of Roanoke Firearms, yesterday confirmed his shop sold the Glock to Cho in March. "It was a very unremarkable sale," said Mr Markell, who did not handle the sale personally. "He was a nice, clean-cut college kid. We won't sell a gun if we have any idea that a purchase is suspicious." Mr Markell said it was not unusual for students to buy from his shop as long as they were old enough. The minimum age to buy a handgun in Virginia is 18. The South Korean-born Cho, 23, was a legal, permanent US resident and eligible to buy a handgun unless he had been convicted of a felony. Under Virginia law, state police keep records of gun purchases from licensed dealers for only 30 days. After that, police destroy the records.

The "right to bear arms" is enshrined in the Second Amendment of the US Constitution, and is one which pressure groups hotly defend. Guns, with some regulation, are widely available to buy across the US. This shooting shows that gun are the problem and Americans should not have the right to carry arms.

The gun shop owner who sold him the Glock 9 mm, one of the guns used at Norris Hall, said Cho easily passed a background check last month before buying the weapon.

Cho Seung-Hui walked into a gun shop five weeks ago, paid the £285 bill by credit card and walked out with a Glock 19 handgun and a box of ammunition. The pistol was one of two guns found carrying Cho's fingerprints after he fatally shot 32 people and then himself at Virginia Tech University.

John Markell, owner of Roanoke Firearms, yesterday confirmed his shop sold the Glock to Cho in March. "It was a very unremarkable sale," said Mr Markell, who did not handle the sale personally. "He was a nice, clean-cut college kid. We won't sell a gun if we have any idea that a purchase is suspicious." Mr Markell said it was not unusual for students to buy from his shop as long as they were old enough. The minimum age to buy a handgun in Virginia is 18. The South Korean-born Cho, 23, was a legal, permanent US resident and eligible to buy a handgun unless he had been convicted of a felony. Under Virginia law, state police keep records of gun purchases from licensed dealers for only 30 days. After that, police destroy the records.

The "right to bear arms" is enshrined in the Second Amendment of the US Constitution, and is one which pressure groups hotly defend. Guns, with some regulation, are widely available to buy across the US. This shooting shows that guns are the problem and Americans should not have the right to carry arms.